Republicans may not be able to repeal the Democrats’ health care reform law next year, but they’re eyeing the next best thing: denying the Obama administration the money it needs to implement the law.

GOP candidates across the country are running on a promise to repeal the law. But simply winning the House and Senate wouldn’t get them there; they'd need to corral two-thirds majorities to overcome what would be an almost certain veto from President Barack Obama.

Resigned to that fact, Republicans are now readying a campaign trail message that voters should grant them the power of Congress’s purse strings so that they can choke off funding for the law.

“Our goal remains to repeal the bill and replace it, but, clearly, with the president’s veto pen, we’re going to have to take interim steps,” said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.

Republicans have proposed a bill to deny funding to any part of the law. But a more likely scenario is to choke off funding for pieces of the legislation that they find particularly troublesome, such as the requirement to buy insurance, changes to Medicare and the provision most cited by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio: the “army of new IRS agents” to implement new requirements for business.

“Hopefully, we will have an election cycle where we will have a strong wave coming in that is opposed to this and can oppose the funding and the implementation of this,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, who is running for governor of Kansas this fall. The law “has to be funded to be implemented.”

Approximately 120 House and Senate candidates have signed on to a pledge, posted at DefundIt.org, to support defunding the overhaul. They include GOP Senate candidates Sharron Angle of Nevada and Jane Norton of Colorado and House candidates Tim Scott of South Carolina and Dennis Ross of Florida.

But this strategy could prove troublesome if Americans are denied some of the popular provisions of the law that they’ve already experienced, such as insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions or one of a series of insurance industry reforms due to go into effect this fall.

Republicans would be able to deny funding only to the pieces of the law that require money from Congress. Doing so could create “Swiss cheese” out of the legislation, with some portions of the law already being funded and others not.

Money has already been appropriated, for instance, to start the employee reinsurance program, which will send money to companies that cover retirees. It’s unclear how a successful defunding plan would affect those programs.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Congress controls $115 billion over 10 years to cover the cost of the agencies implementing the law, as well as funding for programs and grants that have a specified funding amount in the law. The CBO wasn’t able to estimate how much it would cost to implement other programs and grants in the law that weren’t given a specific funding level.
Thus far, Republican efforts to repeal or defund the law have fallen largely on deaf ears. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday found that 35 percent of the public opposes the law, down from 41 percent last month. Those who oppose the law overwhelmingly support repealing it. Support for the health care plan has hovered at about 50 percent.

Democrats argue that Republicans, who once claimed to have the backing of the American people, have lost it.

“Washington Republicans’ agenda is a blast from the past: Shut down the government for selfish political reasons, dismantle Medicare, allow discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and add a trillion bucks to the deficit,” said Doug Thornell, spokesman for Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, leader of the House Democrats’ campaign arm. “This radical plan proves the GOP cares more about politics and insurance company profits than keeping the American people healthy.”

An administration official said the White House has confidence that Democrats will retain control of the House, making any talk of a Republican defunding strategy nothing but an academic exercise.

Republicans in both chambers have introduced bills to repeal the law or pieces of it, including the independent board to limit Medicare spending, a requirement that businesses track spending of more than $600 and caps on flexible spending accounts, but none have gotten much attention from Democrats.

House Democrats proposed a repeal of the expanded business reporting requirement Friday only to thwart a Republican attempt to pass a similar measure. Democrats expected the measure to fail, and it did — 241-154. It would have required the support of two-thirds of the House.

The House Appropriations Committee voted last month on Republican amendments to repeal the law and remove similar provisions, but all failed on party-line votes.